Dwayne Andreas, American businessman, Died at 98

Dwayne Orville Andreas was born on March 4, 1918, in Worthington, Minnesota, and died on November 15, 2016.

He was one of the most prominent political campaign donors in the United States, having contributed millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates alike.

Andreas was in the leadership of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) for twenty-five years, the largest processor of farm commodities in the United States, where he made his fortune.

Andreas grew up mostly in Iowa (with siblings Albert, Lenore, Glen, Osborne and Lowell) and attended Wheaton College in Illinois, but dropped out in his sophomore year after getting married, and went to work for a modest, family-owned food-processing firm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

After Cargill bought the Cedar Rapids facility in 1945, Andreas joined the commodity firm, eventually becoming a vice president.

Among his closest friends was former New York governor and two-time Republican presidential candidate, Thomas E. Dewey.

In 1952, Dwayne Andreas resigned from Cargill , and continued in the vegetable oil business, eventually as an executive of the Grain Terminal Association.